FBI Director Kash Patel claimed Monday that President Donald Trump slashed Washington, D.C. crime based on questionable data that previously prompted a Trump administration probe.
Patel announced a nearly 30% drop in homicides and a 28% drop in overall violent crime in the nation’s capital compared to the same period last year in a Monday X post, citing the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) crime dataset. The MPD excludes whole categories of assaults from its “violent crime” totals, and news broke in August that the Department of Justice (DOJ) was investigating the MPD amid allegations that police officials falsely report crimes as less serious offenses, the Daily Caller News Foundation previously reported.
Almost a 30% decrease in DC homicides year to year and DC violent crime down 28% – these are real people’s lives being saved every day thanks to President Trump’s leadership and LEO’s, National Guard and more all across the federal and local DC government working together to get… https://t.co/zrl3kXNKUU
— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) December 1, 2025
“These are real people’s lives being saved every day thanks to President Trump’s leadership and [law enforcement officers], National Guard and more all across the federal and local DC government working together to get after it,” Patel said. Co-Deputy Director Dan Bongino reposted the post.
The FBI’s press office referred the DCNF to the MPD, which did not respond to a request for comment.
Homicide, robbery, sexual abuse and assault with a dangerous weapon are the only offenses the MPD includes in its “violent crime” totals, leaving out aggravated assault and felony assault without a weapon. Officers’ superiors are responsible for classifying reported crimes, including killings. Officials have an incentive to report them as lesser crimes to make their statistics more favorable, sources familiar with the MPD’s system previously told the Daily Caller.
The Biden-Harris administration’s DOJ similarly touted MPD data in a January press release as evidence that D.C.’s historically unsafe streets were improving under Democratic leadership.
Trump began a wide-ranging crime crackdown in D.C. in August, deploying federal agents and National Guard troops across the capital. He also increased collaboration between federal and local law enforcement as part of the larger departure from lenient criminal justice policies.
The latest FBI data, which counts a wider variety of offenses as “violent” crime, showed that such crimes in D.C. decreased by 10% in 2024 and remained higher than pre-COVID-19 levels from 2018. Homicides have remained higher in D.C. from the pandemic through 2024, according to the bureau.
The MPD data Patel referenced Monday asserts overall crime in the capital plummeted by 16% in 2025 compared to the same period in 2024.
MPD data irregularities prompted Trump’s DOJ and the Republican-led House Oversight Committee to investigate the matter. The MPD also suspended a commander in May over allegations that he manipulated the data for his region of D.C., NBC 4 reported.Preview
“D.C. gave Fake Crime numbers in order to create a false illusion of safety,” Trump said in an August Truth Social post. “This is a very bad and dangerous thing to do, and they are under serious investigation for so doing!”
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